After what was a dominant year-plus in the Minors, Robby Snelling will get his first shot at MLB hitting on May 8, 2026. The Marlins will promote Snelling, a former first-round pick, on that day to make his big-league debut. And, it comes at a time when Snelling did nearly everything he had to force his way to Miami.
A Look at Snelling
Almost two years ago, the Marlins traded reliever Tanner Scott for a four-player package that included two players who had previously made their debut (Adam Mazur & Graham Pauley), infielder Jay Beshears, and pitcher Robby Snelling.
Snelling was a two-sport player in high school, as the left-hander played both football & baseball in the state of Nevada. The Padres, led by AJ Preller, well-known for his affinity for projectable high schoolers, made Snelling the 39th pick in 2022. And after one year, that pick looked fantastic.
He struck out 118 over 103 innings and posted a sub-2.00 ERA. But then, things turned, as Snelling’s velocity waned and he began to give up too much quality contact. Two years ago, Snelling surrendered 17 home runs over 115.1 IP, significantly higher than the four he surrended in 2023. Yes, he moved up to a higher level — but the trend was not great.
Last year was a watershed moment. Across two levels, Snelling struck out 166 batters over 136 innings last year. Snelling was one of the premier pitchers in the International League last season, with a Whiff% above 34% and a sub-2.00 ERA.
This season, Snelling put up fantastic peripherals. The left-hander struck out 44 over 29 innings, as well as another sub-2.00 ERA — this time, a 1.86 ERA — with Triple-A Jacksonville.
As far as the advanced numbers are concerned, Snelling’s chase rate of 25.8% in April wasn’t particularly great, notable given that the left-hander lived out of the zone a lot. He walked 15 batters with the Jumbo Shrimp. Additionally, he produced plenty of groundballs (51..4% GB%) in the month. The one downside of his stellar April was that when opposing hitters went to him, he was prone to giving up well-hit (14.3% Barrel%) contact.
The jump in walks isn’t the biggest deal. Snelling showed good command of the stuff. And the stuff was quite good, to say the least.
Snelling is, primarily, a four-pitch pitcher. A four-seamer with cut that can run up to 97 MPH. Not much extension, at least compared to the MLB average. But that fastball plays well upstairs.
The changeup had a swing-and-miss rate of 48% in Triple-A, a pitch that demonstrated good separation from the fastball, as Snelling’s change sat in the high-80s, to sometimes the low-90s.
Additionally, Snelling also used a slider. But his main breaking ball is a hard curve that sat in the low-to-mid-80s with more slurve-ish action to it.
Both his curveball and fastball were the most heavily used weapons in his arsenal. In his last Triple-A start before the promotion, Snelling combined to use the two a combined 90% of the time.
The Marlins scheduled Robby Snelling to make his MLB debut on May 8 against the Nationals.
Analysis
The 22-year-old didn’t have much left to prove in Triple-A, as Snelling was able to beat hitters down in the Minors in so many ways. Now, Snelling will get his first shot to prove that he can stick in the Majors and be a key piece of the Marlins’ future.
It felt inevitable that Snelling, at some point, was going to be with Miami in 2026. Aside from the performance aspect, which obviously helped, the Marlins cleared the path for their youngsters when the team traded away Ryan Weathers and Edward Cabrera in the winter. Both were fantastic, albeit injury-bitten pitchers, with Miami. But those two were used by the Fish to stockpile more assets.
Snelling is the first of that next wave of starting pitching talent, which should include Thomas White and Karson Milbrandt in the near future. And heading into his first MLB start, Snelling does have the recipe for success, which also includes a rather good defensive group in the Miami infield.
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